A questionable source exhibits one or more of the following: extreme bias, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, poor or no sourcing to credible information, a complete lack of transparency, and/or is fake news. Fake News is the deliberate attempt to publish hoaxes and/or disinformation for profit or influence (Learn More). Sources listed in the Questionable Category may be very untrustworthy and should be fact-checked on a per-article basis. Please note sources on this list are not considered fake news unless specifically written in the reasoning section for that source. See all Questionable sources. Questionable Reasoning: Pseudoscience, Propaganda, Poor Sourcing, Numerous Failed Fact Checks
QUESTIONABLE SOURCE
Detailed Report
Bias Rating: LEFT-CENTER
Factual Reporting: MIXED
Country: India
Press Freedom Rank: LIMITED FREEDOM
Media Type: Newspaper
Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: LOW CREDIBILITY
History
Founded in 1924, The Hindustan Times is a broadsheet format newspaper based in India. They cover local, national, and international news.
Read our profile on India’s Media and Government.
Funded by / Ownership
The Hindustan Times is owned by M.P. Shobhana Bhartia, who was nominated by Congress (2012), and hence the newspaper has a pro-Congress tone. (*The Congress is a secular party whose social liberal platform is generally considered the center-left of Indian politics). The KK Birla group owns a 69 percent stake in HT Media. Revenue is derived through advertising.
Analysis / Bias
In 2022, Reporters Without Borders ranked India 142/180 in their Press Freedom Index, which is borderline completely lacking press freedom.
In review, The Hindustan Times reports national and international news with a left-leaning bias. Articles and headlines contain emotionally loaded language such as this Thackeray under pressure from Bollywood’ mafia’ to derail Sushant probe: Sushil Modi. This story, like most, lacks hyperlinked sourcing. There is low bias when reporting on international news as they use credible sources such as Reuters, AP and maintain factual reporting.
Editorially, they generally align with The Congress Party, the liberal opposition party to Modi’s conservative BJP party. The Congress Party advocates liberty, social justice, equality, the welfare state, and a progressive and secular society. We have also found evidence of promoting Pro-Russian propaganda such as this ‘The plunder of India’: Putin slams West as Russia annexes Ukraine’s 4 regions. In general, the Hindustan Times aligns left politically and has several examples of promoting misinformation, as seen below in the failed fact checks.
Failed Fact Checks
- Did RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat Say Nationalism Refers To ‘Nazism’? – Misleading
- Man from India’s Tripura had died in a hospital in Malaysia due to coronavirus. – False
- “Men are more than twice as likely to die from Covid-19” – Misleading
- Elephant was ‘fed’ a pineapple with firecrackers and that the incident took place in Kerala’s Malappuram district. – False
- A video of an earthquake is being circulated widely on social media as footage of the 7.6-magnitude quake that hit Papua New Guinea – False
- 60,000 rioters were involved in Bengaluru violence – False
- Israeli filmmaker and IFFI jury head Nadav Lapid backtracked on his comments on The Kashmir Files, and now calls it a “brilliant film”. – False
- “Shocking evidence of ISIS involvement in the Ukrainian armed forces has emerged.” – False
Overall, we rate the Hindustan Times Left-Center Biased and questionable due to poor sourcing, numerous failed fact checks, and the promotion of propaganda. (M. Huitsing 9/5/2017) Updated (02/18/2023)
Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/
Last Updated on February 18, 2023 by Media Bias Fact Check
Left vs. Right Bias: How we rate the bias of media sources
